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Sunday, 5 February 2012

It's Snow Way to Finish

The last day of our week in Southend and then Buxton finished in heavy snow falling on the Derbyshire town. The forecast had been for a large dose of the white stuff and because of the height above sea level in the heart of the Peak District there was obviously every chance that the Opera House and the surrounding areas would be severely affected. By all accounts from the cast and crew the snow started around lunchtime and never really let up after that. There was never any chance that either the matinee or the evening shows would be cancelled but the Box Office was probably affected, especially the evening performance when the snowfall had taken full hold. Because of the deteriorating forecast the vast majority of the company, well all except Kylie whose parents were in the audience last night and took her home, stayed an extra night in the town and then made their attempts to get home. It was probably just as well they did as the south of the country received its major snow around 11 p.m. so any journey back to London and/or Essex might have been a nightmare. Indeed there were stories of drivers and their passengers stranded on the M25 for over eight hours and the A127, the main route towards Southend was blocked by a broken down gritter of all things and that left many other cars either abandoned or just with nowhere to go as the snow took hold.

Back in Buxton, the lorry that was due to arive at the theatre to allow the Get-Out to happen phoned to say that conditions were so bad they had only gone 400 yards in an hour and there was seemingly no way they were going to get anywhere near their intended destination. In such situations there is very little that can be done except to grin and bear it and, having re-arranged the set to be loaded on Tuesday, Chris, the Company manager, text me shortly after midnight to say the flats etc had been struck and the company had all managed to get back to their digs. The cold weather seems to be set in for the week over the East of the country so maybe it is a good thing that our tour has a week out this week before it moves on to Lowestoft and then Stevenage in the following week.